1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a multiple pin contactor device for power bus bar systems, which comprises at least one bus bar rail consisting of at least two plates stacked on top of and fixed to one another.
2. Description of Prior Developments
Such bus bar rails find application in various systems such as systems of the supply of electricity to industrial installations where high-intensity currents of the order of 500 Amps and over have to be distributed, or of the supply of current to domestic installations where currents of the order of 10 Amps have to be distributed at a potential of 200 or 380 Volts. In such distribution systems, it is appropriate and at the same time problematical, to distribute the current by means of the connection of contactor plugs and connectors between the principal bus bar and the users, or other bus bars. Problems can arise with the resistance of the plug-in contactor, which may in time rise significantly, if, for example, by reason of the crushing of the connector studs in the socket, the area of contact is reduced and that accordingly local overheating and hence possible points of corrosion occur on the plug-in connectors. The contactor resistance then falls until a complete breakdown occurs.
The present invention has the object of providing a multiple pin contactor device for power bus bar systems, which seeks to ensure that the area of contact between the elements which can be plugged into one another, is always adequately large for the contact resistance of the plug-in connector not to rise excessively.
This object is reached by means of a multiple pin contactor device for bus bar systems comprising at least one bus bar consisting of at least two plates stacked on top of and fixed to one another and comprising at least one set of contactor pin forks which coincide and are arranged, one above the other, in which the contactor pin forks of the different plates are able to move independently of one another, when a plug-in contactor is introduced.
Generally speaking, the idea behind the invention is that of assembling the multiple pin contactors from numerous plates fitted with contactors whose contactor pin forks are able to move independently of one another and which separately exert a pressure on the plug-in connector when it is inserted.
Preferably, the contactor pin forks have parallel columns, each of which exhibits a bulge at the front end, which reduces the gap between them and widens the plug-in side into the form of a funnel.
According to one variant, the invention finds application in an installation comprising several bus bars fixed parallel to one another on a support and comprising a current distribution assembly such that in each case a contactor pin fork unit is arranged in protection housings embedded in the support. The protection housings of each contactor pin fork each have a lodgement separated from the rest by movable partitions.